The European Commission published yesterday its roadmap setting out its objectives on the issue of plastics. In particular, it intends to reduce “the leakage of plastics into the environment”. Unfortunately, if we welcome the intention, we can only be critical of the solutions proposed.

The logic that maximizing GDP, which is just the summation of all goods and services exchanged for money, will somehow lead to a better world for all is so obviously flawed, yet it continues to be held in high regard by almost every mainstream economist.

For the first time, scientists have calculated an estimate of the combined mass of the ‘ technosphere ‘ – a concept that defines all the human-made things on the planet. All your stuff, basically, and everybody else’s too.

Months after the worst coral bleaching event to hit the reef, Australian conservationist Tim Flannery returns to a tourism hot spot 50km north-east of Port Douglas to witness the destruction wrought by a warming planet

As the National Parks Service turns 100 this week, we look at how receding ice, extreme heat and acidifying oceans are transforming America’s landscapes, and guardians of national parks face the herculean task of stopping it